Weathering the Police Storm at City Hall

A homeless man falls asleep on the plaza in front of City Hall illuminated by police-rented
Klieg lights August 20, 2010 Photo by Becky Johnson

Article found online at: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/29/18657054.php

by Robert Norse

The SCPD appears to be using a new harassment strategy at Peacecamp2010. The protest movement in its struggle to maintain a nightly presence at or across from City Hall, has faced repeated seizure of property, ticketing for new "offenses", and the changing agreed-upon standards of behavior at the protest. Political signs, their table, and the chairs they sit on--earlier reclaimed by the protesters with difficulty is now being seized again, eliminating their visible presence.

A small but persistent band of Peacecamp2010 [PC2010] demonstrators has gathered each night at City Hall, under near-blinding klieg lights powered by a smelly noisy generator, to defy the City's anti-homeless 11 PM - 8:30 AM Sleeping Ban.

In response, City police have escalated from harassment wake-up's and ticketing threats.

They moved beyond infraction citations under MC 6.36 (the Camping Ordinance which includes the Sleeping, Blanket, and Camping Bans) and threats to arrest if the protesters dare to sleep, cover up, or "encamp" a second successive night. They've tried the enforcement "strategy" used at the County Building last month-- misdemeanor tickets and arrests under the sweeping and selectively enforced "anti-lodging" state penal code 647e.

They've set up glaring lights on a platform installed in a parking spot in front of the City Hall entrance, complete with a generator, noisily spewing toxic fumes and making ordinary conversation problematic. They've rushed through without public comment an administrative edict by Parks and Rec boss, Dannette Shoemaker, making any protest or presence at City Hall after 10 PM a "trespass" offense--even though City Hall is public property, and has been open to the public 24/7 for over 150 years.


New signs posted at City Hall close access
to the grounds for the first time in 150 years.
Photo by Becky Johnson August 21, 2010

They've confiscated political signs, tables, chairs, and personal survival gear without any citations, making the retrieval of property difficult and the retriever liable to an "unattended property" citation, even though the property itself was claimed--and the claim ignored by harassing police. They closed down the police lobby on Tuesday and shut down property claim times, stonewalling those who had marched to the station on August 24 in attempt to reclaim their stolen blankets and sleeping bags.

Those who returned the following Thursday, looking for their confiscated possessions, were told that "since they weren't causing a hubub, they COULD process the return of their possessions." Clearly any homeless person associated with the protest is being punished by the denial of due process.

Protesters have moved from the City Hall grass, to the red bricks, to the front area of City Hall, to the library frontage across the street, then to the sidewalk--all under pressure from police to vacate a new area, suddenly declared "illegal".

Two days after some protest property was successfully reclaimed by "Castaway" Crow, the police confiscated and removed their chairs, table, signs, and blankets.Everything had been moved to the sidewalk to get them out of the "No Trespassing" zone, and were carefully arrayed to leave a passage free on the sidewalk. Still "Get it Done" Gary received a new category of ticket-- "blocking the sidewalk".

"The Officer told me 'You shouldn't have to swerve to walk past them,' " Gary reported.

The next night, apparently dazzled by rhetorical points made by the ever-loquacious "Ocean" police skipped citing him, only to return the following night to ticket him for "trespass" because one of his signs impinged on the red brick "closed after 10 PM" area. "Looks like my citation collection is almost complete," noted Gary. "I seem to be collecting at least one of each."

Last night Gary, one of the first protesters arrested and one of those there the longest, placed his sleeping bag in a well-lighted parking spot In front of Gary was the sputtering portable generator fueling the Klieg lights; behind him, attorney-activist Ed Frey's white pick-up truck used to haul, park, and service the only bathroom facility open after midnight in Santa Cruz--the Protest Portapotty. "What about the toxic fumes from the generator three feet away?" I asked. "Got to," he replied, "It's the only safe spot in the where approaching cars won't inadvertently park on top of you."

Gary Johnson falls asleep in the gutter to protest the Sleeping Ban without violating the new, trespassing laws. Photo by Becky Johnson August 27 2010

Will protesters get the same right to occupy space as vehicles? Not the case in public parking lots down town where Vice-Mayor Coonerty's Parking Lot Panic law made it illegal to assemble, socialize, or even sit in your vehicle. Watch this site for updates.

City Manager Martin Bernal may have trotted out a new illegitimate City strategy that ignores and crushes First Amendment rights because simple ticketing under the Camping Ordinance and the state Lodging law may not pass muster because of the acknowledged absence of walk-in emergency shelter from April 15 to November 15. Hence we we see new "trespassing" and "blocking the sidewalk" citations, abusive and repeated seizures of unmistakably First Amendment protected signs as well as vital homeless survival gear, and false inflammatory charges of criminal behavior at the site ("child molesting") without any factual back-up.

Meanwhile "Nuff Said" Nancy McCradie, a decades-long Sleeping Ban survivor and fighter from Santa Barbara, suggests fighting 647e by sleeping on top of bedding since that law specifies "in" not "on" in its wording.

Judith Scherr of Free Speech Radio News came down to Santa Cruz last week and created a radio segment being broadcast nationally about Peacecamp2010 and broadcast on KPFA radio. Hear it archived at http://www.fsrn.org/audio/protest-over-homeless-rights-brings-issue-santa-cruz%E2%80%99s-city-hall/7391 .

Locally Bathrobespierre's Broadsides, the Free Radio Santa Cruz twice-weekly show, continues to archive developments at Peacecamp2010 at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/brb-descriptions.html . I've answered a local hit piece against Ed Frey in the Santa Cruz Weekly at http://news.santacruz.com/2010/08/24/santa_cruz_attorney_takes_up_plight_of_the_homeless .

And the Sentinel has moved from inflammatory SCPD press releases to complete silence as police ramp up the pressure against poor people fighting an unjust law in a very hard economic time.

Becky Johnson contributed to this article. All photos by Becky Johnson.

Peace Camp 2010 protesters march to Santa Cruz police station

Camping ban protesters marched Tuesday from Santa Cruz City Hall to the lobby of the Santa Cruz Police Department where they attempted to retrieve all their property that has been confiscated from their camping sites. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel)


NOTE TO READER: After only three people had been processed, police pre-emptively shut down the office, ordering all those waiting in the lobby (and cooling off from record heat) out of doors. While police take blankets/property of homeless people 24/7, they only return it during a 1 hour time slot, two days a week leaving homeless people out in the cold without their survival gear. ---Becky Johnson, Ed.



FURTHER NOTE: The photo of the interior is a tribute to the (occasional) journalistic independence of Dan Coyro, the Sentinel photographer. Trisha Husome, records manager, came out from behind the thick glass enclosure in which the employees work. She told him and the rest of us that photographing and recording wee "not allowed" in the building (though police have a video camera monitoring the lobby).

Dan and Peacecamp2010 supporters, myself included, ignored Husome's repressive advisory. I'll be playing some audio of the protest which will be archived at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb100826.mp3

Last year Husome actually refused to provide documents under the Public Records Act because I was openly making an audio of our interaction (because of past difficulties and to keep an objective record of what went down). See "SCPD Covering Up False Police Report From Councilmember Mike Rotkin?" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/12/26/18468941.php

Not only were those homeless waiting for their property (and the public generally forced out of doors by four officers and a lieutenant ("lobby is closed"), but the police refused to give an explanation.

After Peacecampsters sat down (or lay down in the intense afternoon heat) to await the next 15 minute interval when the property officer would be "available", the police announced that the entire property room would be closed until next Thursday. When there would again be a narrow opening between 12:30 and 1:30 and another between 3:15 and 3:30. Unless the police again decide otherwise.

I did ask for the return of a table, two chairs, several "End the Sleeping Ban" signs, and the Peacecamp2010 teddy bear. I was told they couldn't help me because I had no "incident number". It did me no good to tell them the items weren't put in an incident report, as far as I knew. If anyone sees the downtown Officer Forbus, please advise him I'm trying to get my teddy bear released.
--Robert Norse

Camping ban protesters march to Santa Cruz police station
By J.M. BROWN
Posted: 08/25/2010 01:30:17 AM PDT

found online at: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_15886112



SANTA CRUZ --" A small group of demonstrators taking part in the protest against the city's overnight sleeping ban marched to the police department Tuesday in hopes of retrieving blankets, sleeping bags, signs and other items seized during recent arrests.

Participant Becky Johnson said at least two people were given paperwork to retrieve their property but wasn't sure whether any actually received it. Police confirmed some property was collected.

"We went there en masse and apparently overwhelmed their staff," Johnson said.

The police department allows people who have been arrested to pick up property during brief windows of time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Due to cutbacks, the department only permits property pickup between 12:30-1:30 p.m. and 3:15-3:30 p.m. on those days.

No arrests or problems were reported during Tuesday's event. Johnson said there were no immediate plans to have another march Thursday.

Police arrested four people and issued 12 tickets outside City Hall between Saturday and 5 p.m. Tuesday. Protesters, who began their seven-week demonstration at the county courthouse lawn, are opposed to the ban against sleeping outside from 11 p.m. to 8:30 a.m., a law they believe unfairly targets homeless people.

They have asked police to check whether local shelters are full before writing citations and have vowed to stay until the City Council overturns the ban. The city attorney routinely dismisses citations if shelters were full on the evening of the day they were written.

"After failing to get traction at the county building, then failing again at City Hall, apparently the protesters are trying to gain traction at the police department," police spokesman Zach Friend said. "It's safe to say it's unlikely they'll get any traction here."

Camping ban protesters marched Tuesday from Santa Cruz City Hall to the lobby of the Santa Cruz Police Department where they attempted to retrieve all their property that has been confiscated from their camping sites. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel)

Sentinel Misinformation Allows Police to Install "Don't Sleep Here" Klieg Lights

KOIN Also Breaks "No Shelter" Story, Usually Ignored or Denied


THE BAD AND THE GOOD
The Santa Cruz Sentinel's inflammatory and libelous stories characterizing Mark Greer, a homeless activist at the Peacecamp2010 homeless protest, as a "child molester" was ignorantly echoed by KION's Matt Denesnera [See story following this article below].

On the positive side, Denesnera's story does cover, briefly, the central issue of the Peacecamp2010 protest--harassing, citing, and arresting homeless people for sleeping in public places when there is no legal shelter is an institutional crime by the authorities. It is a crime that does greater violence to individuals and society than the so-called "crime" of sleeping outside (as banned by SCMC 6.36.010a, SCMC 6.36.010b, SCMC 6.36.010c and CPC 647e.

The shelter issue has also been spotlighted by attorney Ed Frey and others who took the issue to the Homeless Services Center board on Thursday (8-19) evening.

See "Correcting the Record at the Homeless Services Center Today" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/19/18656366.php & "No Homeless Shelter & the Sleeping Ban: Shelter Providers & Mayor Rotkin Speak" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/21/18656488.php .


THE DAMAGING SMEAR OF THE "CHILD MOLESTER" LABEL
Without researching or interviewing, Sentinel reporter Jennifer Squires smeared the protest as dangerous and Greet as a convicted pervert, a venomous charge repeated by Deputy Police Chief Kevin Vogel in the second story. This "terror tale" apparently gave Vogel's Sleepbusters a pretext to make Peacecamp2010's sidewalk sleeping area more hostile by installing huge 15' high Klieg lights on a platform with a noisy and fume-spewing diesel generator running it through the night.

The company supplying the lights and generator confirmed the cost was $100 per day ($400 per week). The city also apparently recruited a second First Alarm security guard to patrol the sinister sleepers. The whole affair is reminiscent of the Bush-Obama post-9/11 propaganda justifying the war on terror. Indeed the "lights and noise" environment smacks of the U.S.-run Guantanamo, Abu Gharab, and Bagram concentration camps.

Greer's girlfriend Sara, however, reports that there is no substance to the "molester" charge. She's lived with Greer for some time, she says, and CPS has given Greer a clean bill of health. Greeg's background as an "unregistered sex offender" comes from his arrest at age 14 for a sexual relationship with a girl one year younger.

Because juvenile authorities claimed he'd failed to complete a program, he has been required to register every month, which he has done. Sara says he got permission to travel, and was one day late in registered because Santa Cruz police arrested the pregnant Sara on a warrant for camping from San Luis Obispo. (Sara says the authorities there laughed at the warrant and released her, so she returned her to find Greer in jail.

Greer, who gave his name as Jason or Shadow, is in jail here in Santa Cruz, for providing "false information" (that is, a false name). Some audio from Greer can be found at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb100819.mp3 .

The defamatory Sentinel stories
Child molester arrested at Santa Cruz camping protest
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_15812882 (8/17)
and
Santa Cruz police light up camping protest with floodlights
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_15820566?IADID (8/18)

A partial presentation of Sara's story was buried in a Sentinel article today by Cathy Kelly " Peace Camp protestors ticketed again; Santa Cruz mayor visits camp" at http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_15842800.




The full KOIN story:

Santa Cruz Homeless Protest Brightened by Floodlights
Posted: Aug 19, 2010 7:47 PM PDT Updated: Aug 19, 2010 7:58 PM PDT

by Matt Denesnera, KION

found online at: http://www.kcba.com/Global/story.asp?S=13016011

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- At dusk, Santa Cruz police fire up floodlights in front of City Hall, illuminating what's left of Peace Camp 2010.

Authorities installed the lighting citing public safety concerns, particularly after a convicted sex offender, who failed to register with police, was arrested here earlier this week.

"When you've got a child molester out there who's on the run from the law -- he had several outstanding warrants from San Luis Obispo County -- it really takes this to a new level in terms of safety," said Santa Cruz deputy police chief Kevin Vogel.

The homeless and their advocates are protesting the city's sleeping ordinances and, in the past, they have asked for amnesty for all sleeping tickets dating back to the late 1970's.

Demonstrators said they're just looking for a safe place, but it's apparently hard to come by. They told Central Coast News there is nowhere to go, and that's why they are taking their grievances to the steps of the city government.

Officials with the Homeless Services Center on Coral Street confirmed that shelter space is limited; they said they practically have a year-round waiting list.

"Right now, we have about a two week waiting list for women, and four week waiting list for men," explained Monica Martinez, executive director of the Homeless Services Center.

Some protesters said that leaves them with few options.

As for a solution to the complex issue of homelessness, Martinez said it involves working with various agencies to provide services for those on the streets.

As a security guard shut off the generator powering the floodlights in front of City Hall Thursday morning, demonstrators said they have no plans to leave.

"We want to see the world change," said homeless advocate Rick Branthoover. "Not because of us, but there are alot of other people who need help, too."

Police aren't letting up either: "As long as these protesters continue to flaunt this community's laws, we will continue to enforce the law," said deputy chief Vogel.

Submitted by Matt de Nesnera, Central Coast News Reporter

mattdenesnera@kionrightnow.com